Tilani
The Tilani are a race of near-humans originally from the Deep Core. Homeworld and Heritage Homeworld: Kircone, a mountainous but temperate high-gravity world in the Deep Core. Kircone is near inaccessible, buried inside a star cluster that gives the planet a high level of illumination even during what passes for the world’s night. It has limited mineral resources, though renewable resources are abundant and some of the wildlife rivals the power of the Galaxy's great monsters. Due to the similarities between the Tilani and baseline Humans, it is not known whether the Tilani are a subset of the Human race or an entirely separate species. The color- and shape-shifting capabilities of the Tilani are unknown in other subsets of humanity, which seems to indicate a separate heritage; however, they Tilani and baseline humans can interbreed, which tends to support the subset theory. Regardless of their heritage, the Tilani are certainly close enough to human to pass as such even in a routine medical check. While a more advanced physical reveals the differences, the Tilani have so far managed to keep their existence from becoming common knowledge. Culture The isolation of Kircone has resulted in a highly martial culture. The Tilani are highly accomplished at combat, particularly small unit tactics and hand-to-hand fighting. They are especially proficient in unarmed combat and edged weapons, though they generally eschew swords in favor of smaller weapons such as knives. They were extremely secretive, revealing their existence only to a select few non-Tilani. Capabilities Due to their denser physique and high-gravity homeworld, the Tilani are physically extremely fit. They have a strength equivalent to approximately 1.4 times that of a baseline human of the same size, and an endurance to match. The density of their muscle mass means they can take more damage than a baseline human; it’s much more difficult to break a Tilani’s bones or inflict a deep cut or bruise. The Tilani have a higher average intelligence than baseline humans as well, but it’s their colorshifting capabilities that are the most remarkable. The Tilani are capable of altering their hair color, skin tone, and eye color at will. In addition, they have a limited shapeshifting ability as well, just enough to change the outlines of their features. The two capabilities combined make the Tilani masters of disguises. In part as a result of their chromatomorphic capability, the Tilani are capable in seeing in a broader spectrum than baseline humans. Their eyes are capable of sight well into the infrared spectrum, and on the opposite side, the ultraviolet. The final set of capabilities that distinguishes the Tilani from baseline humanity is their mental traits. The Tilani have a form of short-range telepathy, as well as some limited precognitive/clairvoyant ability. Neither depends on the Force; in fact, there is not a single known example of a Force-sensitive Tilani, and there are theories that the same cluster of adaptations that gives them their telepathy and clairvoyance may also block Force sensitivity. This restrained connection to the Force leaves them immune to mental Force powers; however, they are still vulnerable to physical attacks. Technology Due to the limited mineral resources available on Kircone, the Tilani have perfected miniaturized electronics to a level unprecedented in the known galaxy. Much of the technology used by the Bratstvo Svobodii was designed by Tilani techs who were members of the organization. Among the technologies developed by the Tilani are: *'Selective cloaking fields', usually transparent to a handful of frequencies used for telemetry links. This has the effect of a one-way cloaking shield, though the shield itself is not one-way. In addition, Tilani-built shields are much smaller than those built in the rest of the galaxy, allowing them to be installed in smaller ships. *'Voidsabers' were developed for Aron Kellemann as favor. *The Tilani created a truly practical antimatter reactor to power ships. While an individual reactor did not put much more power than the hypermatter reactors used by most capital ships, they were much smaller, allowing a single to have up to half a dozen installed in the space a single hypermatter reactor would have required. Some very small antimatter reactors were even developed capable of being installed in a starfighter or small freighter; Banshee and Seventh Circle were two examples. *'Flex-reactive armor' and the LoViS blaster series were both created by a mixed human/Tilani tech project, based on Tilani technology. Category:Races and Species